Over two-thirds of Europeans prefer policy decisions on the environment to be made at European Union level, according to a Eurobarometer survey published on 13th March 2008. The report also shows that Europeans are increasingly aware of the role played by the environment in their daily lives. More than 95% of European citizens feel that it is important to protect the environment. Some 80% also feel it influences their quality of life and consider that they have a role to play in protecting it. Climate change tops the list of Europeans' environmental concerns, followed by pollution and man-made disasters.

Europeans concerned about GMOs

While the Eurobarometer survey shows that the top five environmental issues Europeans are most concerned about are climate change, water and air pollution, man-made disasters, and the use of chemicals in everyday products, a majority are also uneasy about the use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture. Some 58% of European citizens say they are apprehensive about the use of GMOs and 21% they are in favour.

Europeans willing to buy green products
Approximately three quarters of Europeans declare they Approximately even if this means paying a bit more. On average only 17% of Europeans said they had bought environmentally-friendly products within the previous month. This means that nearly 60% of Europeans say they are willing to switch to consuming green products, but have not yet done so. The majority of Europeans (52%) say they would be able to recognise a genuinely environmentally friendly product by its label.

Environmental protection not an obstacle to economic performance
As to whether environmental protection is an obstacle to favourable economic performance or a motivation to innovate, (63%) of Europeans feel that protecting the environment is more of an incentive to innovate rather than see it as an obstacle to economic performance (16%). Almost as many Europeans (64%) feel that protecting the environment must be given priority over economic competitiveness and 18% feel that competitiveness is more important.
More than two-thirds of European citizens are also convinced that the progress of individual countries should be measured using social, environmental and economic indicators while a minority (15%) believe that progress should be mostly based on monetary and economic indicators.

Global responses to global problems
About two-thirds of European citizens prefer to see decisions on the environment made jointly within the European Union rather than at national level. A large proportion (82%) of Europeans also say that they see harmonised European environmental legislation as necessary, that the EU should help non-EU countries improve their environmental standards (80%) and (78%) say that the EU should allocate more money to the protection of the environment.

Some 78% of Europeans also consider useful the creation of a European civil protection force to deal with natural disasters in their country.